Historic Victory atop the Palisades

Your support made it possible

Dear Peter,

I'm delighted to report that this afternoon Scenic Hudson and four of our conservation partners joined with LG Electronics to announce we've reached a historic, win-win settlement—protecting world-class vistas of the Palisades and allowing the company to construct a new North American headquarters that will retain local jobs.

Under the settlement, LG will dramatically reduce the height of its headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., from 143 feet to 69 feet—minimizing its impact on the Palisades viewshed—and the company will implement landscape, lighting and other design features to further reduce visual impacts. At the same time, the settlement will enable LG to double its local employment to more than 1,000 by 2019, while creating thousands of immediate construction jobs. You can read more about the settlement here.

In addition to our leading role in the litigation, Scenic Hudson was a founding member of the Protect the Palisades coalition, uniting more than 30 environmental, cultural and civic groups to fight the plan, and we helped secure key support from The New York Times and other influential media.

The settlement ends a three-year campaign to safeguard the majesty of the Palisades. As originally designed, LG's headquarters would have stood nearly 70 feet above the treeline, making it the first building prominently visible along a 20-mile stretch of this National Natural Landmark. It would have spoiled long-cherished views that provide enjoyment for people recreating on the Hudson River; traveling on Amtrak or Metro-North's Hudson Line; crossing the George Washington Bridge; and visiting tourist destinations such as Wave Hill and the Cloisters. These vistas support the tourism economy and increase nearby property values on both sides of the river.

This could very well be the most important environmental settlement in the Hudson Valley over the last decade. On behalf of Scenic Hudson's board and staff, I offer my personal thanks to all of you whose generosity and advocacy made it possible for us to reach this milestone in preserving an irreplaceable national treasure. At the same time, I ask for your continued support so we can remain vigilant—and united with our partners—in pressing for measures that will ensure the permanent protection of the entire Palisades ridgeline.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has announced it intends to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement to evaluate the effects of authorizing incidental take of migratory birds. The Federal Register notice is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-05-26/pdf/2015-12666.pdf. Public comments will be accepted at www.regulations.gov until July 27 (Docket No. FWS–HQ–MB–2014–0067).

“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should be commended for this initiative; bird lovers across America will now be able to submit comments in support of protecting the migratory birds that enliven their spring and fall seasons,” said Steve Holmer. “There have been great advances in our knowledge for conserving birds, this process can put that information to work and make best management practices, standard practices.”

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), prohibit “take” of migratory birds, endangered and threatened species, and Bald and Golden Eagles. While the ESA and BGEPA provide mechanisms for FWS to regulate, and in some instances authorize, take of endangered and threatened species and Bald and Golden Eagles respectively, at present no such comparable mechanism exists under the MBTA to limit or authorize incidental take by wind power projects or other industries.

The Notice of Intent offers a menu of potential options to establish this authority including permitting entire industries that have known impacts such and oil and gas, communications towers, and powerlines. For each of these examples included in the notice, there are already available technologies that can reduce bird mortality.

The notice reveals FWS is considering building on the voluntary guidance developed for wind energy. FWS is also proposing establishing new authority for incidental take permits for projects or activities not covered in the sector permits. The notice suggests that environmental reviews for migratory birds, endangered species and eagles could be combined into one permitting process.

Several other proposed incidental take authorizations are more problematic and deserve careful consideration. The first of these would grant other federal agencies take authority for their management activities. Under this system, the Bureau of Land Management would for example, have authority to take migratory birds in connection with mines and other developments on public lands. The current system of FWS oversight provides for expert and independent review and a potential check on any misuse of agency management authorities.

The last type of take authorization would rely on development of voluntary guidance for specific industry sectors. The Wind Energy Guidelines are an existing example of this approach, and to date, it has been ineffective at mitigating bird mortality or ensuring proper siting of new developments. ABC recently released a study finding that tens of thousands of turbines have already be sited in sensitive bird habitats.

ABC petitionedFWS in 2011 and again in February 2015 for wind industry regulatory action that would reduce the projected 1.4-2 million bird deaths expected to be caused by the industry when it reaches projected build out levels. A key provision of the ABC petition urged FWS to establish a permitting process that would significantly improve the protection of birds covered by the MBTA and would afford the wind industry a degree of regulatory and legal certainty that cannot be provided in the absence of such a process.

ABC is developing a set of recommendations for this proposed rulemaking and will soon circulate a draft for input from partners and migratory bird experts.

Sign On Letter to End Pipe-Induced Wildlife Mortality on Public Lands

Please review and consider endorsing the following letter to administration officials asking for further attention to the problem of wildlife mortality caused by open pipes. While some progress has been made by federal agencies to raise awareness and remove threatening pipes, more needs to be done to eliminate this threat and make sure it doesn’t keep happening in the future.

To sign on your organization, please use this action link and fill in your information:

The undersigned conservation organizations are writing to commend Bureau of Land Management and U.S.D.A. Forest Service wildlife and minerals staff for their efforts to reduce bird mortality caused by vertical pipes, such as mine markers, fence posts, and outhouse vents. Much work remains to be done to remove existing hazards, and long-term policies and procedures still need to be established to prevent this form of bird mortality from continuing to occur on public lands in the future.

Small birds often see the opening of PVC mining claim markers and other pipes as a hollow suitable for nesting. The birds enter the holes only to become trapped because the walls of the pipes do not allow them to extend their wings and fly out and are too smooth to allow them to grapple their way up the sides. Death from dehydration or starvation soon follows.

Fortunately, this threat to birds has been identified and some positive actions are underway to eliminate the problem and meet the respective agencies’ responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Executive Order 13186. This includes the BLM’s creation of a flyer endorsed by partners including American Bird Conservancy and the National Mining Association that will be mailed to mine claim holders alerting them to the problem and urging they replace or remediate hazardous marker. And Forest Service staff are covering open vent pipes on outhouses that were trapping birds.

We would like to encourage BLM and USDA to continue efforts to identify priority areas for pipe removal, and further coordinate stake-pulling events as resources allow. In addition, federal agencies need to develop national policy to mitigate or remove existing open pipes, and to prevent their use in federal projects in the future.

In addition to these important steps, mining claimants need to be held responsible for their stakes through federal regulatory action that will require removal of hazardous markers. And to ensure the problem doesn’t continue, standards can be set for bird-safe and environmentally friendly mining markers.

We therefore have several recommended actions to help carry out and bolster these efforts that we ask the administration to consider:

1.Issuing national policy directives to remove or modify existing pipes, and to delineate standards to prevent use of open pipes in the future.

2.Initiating a federal rulemaking to require that mining claim holders replace pipes that can cause mortality and to require non-hazardous markers on all current and future claims.

3.Dedicate sufficient resources annually to educate mine claim holders, to coordinate and carry out partnership efforts to remove pipes, and to carry out necessary infrastructure improvements on the Public Lands and National Forest Systems.

Thank you for considering these requests.

Sincerely,

Alaska Wild Animal Recovery Effort

Alberta Wilderness Association

American Bird Conservancy

Arkansas Audubon Society

Bird Conservation Network

Californians for Western Wilderness

Center for Biological Diversity

Center for Sierra Nevada Conservation

Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage

Clearwater Audubon Society

Coastal Bend Audubon Society

Conservation CATalyst

Conservation Northwest

Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Dakubetede Environmental Education Programs (DEEP)

Eastern Long Island Audubon Society

Endangered Habitats League

Environmental Solutions LLC

The Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC)

Facts About Wildlife and Nature Society (FAWNS)

Fort Collins Audubon Society

Friends of California Condors Wild and Free

Friends of the Boundary Mountains

Friends of the Kalmiopsis

Golden Gate Audubon Society

Great Old Broads for Wilderness

Grouse Inc.

Illinois Ornithological Society

Kerncrest Audubon Society

Kestrel Land Trust

Kettle Range Conservation Group

Klamath Forest AllianceLane County Audubon Society

Laramie Audubon Society

Louisiana Audubon Council

Madrone Audubon Society, Inc.

Minnesota River Valley Audubon Chapter (MRVAC).

Northern Flint Hills Audubon Society

Pomona Valley Audubon

Prairie Hills Audubon Society

Rocky Mountain Wild

Salem Audubon Society

Skagit Audubon Society

South Florida Wildlands Association

Southern Maryland Audubon Society

Saint Louis Audubon Society

The Tennessee Ornithological Society

Threatened and Endangered Little Applegate Valley (TELAV)

Umpqua Watersheds, Inc.

The Urban Wildlands Group

Virginia Bluebird Society

West Pasco Audubon Society

Whidbey Environmental Action Network

WildEarth Guardians

Wildlife Information Center

World Temperate Rainforest Network

Yosemite Area Audubon Society

To sign on your organization, please use this action link and fill in your information:

Prospect sightings and North Brooklyn

About Me

President Emeritus of the Brooklyn Bird Club. Also former newsletter editor and
still active trips planner.
My Contact info:
Prosbird@aol.com
http://www.overlookednewyork.com/birdwatchers/images/peter.html